Quincy steps up its biotech pitch

Steve Adams

Saturday

Jun 16, 2012 at 12:01 AMJun 16, 2012 at 4:12 PM

Quincy officials will promote city at the Boston Trade Show. For the first time, Quincy officials will have a spot in the Massachusetts Pavilion, a 2,700-square-foot meeting space just inside the entrance of the convention hall. The $100,000 marketing initiative is part of Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s strategy for attracting biotech investment to the city.

QUINCY – When the biotech industry holds its largest annual trade show this week in Boston, economic development officials from Saskatchewan to Switzerland will be lined up to recruit life science companies.

In Massachusetts, the road to the biotech industry usually leads through places like Cambridge and Lexington. But local officials are trying to burnish the South Shore’s reputation as an industry landing spot.

Convincing life science researchers from overseas to relocate to the South Shore is an easier sell than Cambridge, said Gary Gillheeney, chief financial officer of Canton-based artificial skin manufacturer Organogenesis.

“Because of our proximity to Cambridge we have been able to recruit some of the top talent from around the world, but the cost of living and our operating costs are so much lower,” he said.

For the first time, Quincy officials will have a spot in the Massachusetts Pavilion, a 2,700-square-foot meeting space just inside the entrance of the convention hall. The $100,000 marketing initiative is part of Quincy Mayor Thomas Koch’s strategy for attracting biotech investment to the city.

Quincy will tout vacant blocks of space at commercial properties including Crown Colony Park, the State Street Corp. campus in North Quincy and the former Fore River shipyard. Biotech lab and office space also is a component of developer Street-Works’ blueprint for a $1.6-billion redevelopment of downtown Quincy.

Quincy’s pitch: The city offers many of the amenities of Boston and Cambridge with significantly lower rents.

In addition to the usual brochures and marketing handouts, the city commissioned a promotional video produced by J.R. Stack Creative of Quincy.

The convention begins Monday at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center for the first time since 2007, bringing an estimated 15,000 visitors from 65 countries.

Quincy’s push comes at a time when the biotech industry continues to expand in the Bay State. Since 2007, biotech companies have added roughly two million square feet of lab and manufacturing space in Massachusetts, according to biotech officials. The industry now employs nearly 50,000 people in the state at more than 500 companies.

The Legislature approved a 10-year, $1-billion life sciences initiative proposed by Gov. Deval Patrick in 2008. Since then, the state has given $300 million in incentives to biotech companies. That has spurred nearly $900 million in private investment, said Massachusetts Life Science Center CEO Linda Windham-Bannister, whose agency is in charge of administering the funds.

The BIO convention is a key opportunity for cities to put their names in the forefront, Windham-Bannister said.

“As companies are growing, they’re looking for proximity to Boston and Cambridge but they’re also looking for places to do business where the cost is lower but they still have access to talented workers,” she said.

Officials point to the growth of companies such as Organogenesis as a model. The company, which makes artificial skin to treat leg and foot ulcers, is expanding into a new research lab and headquarters this month and building a $65-million manufacturing plant across the street.

The South Shore is a good location for mature-stage companies such as Organogenesis that are bringing products to market, and need office and warehouse workers, CFO Gillheeney said.

“You can get the research folks, but also the people who ship the products and answer the phones,” he said.

Companies like Organogenesis and Quincy-based Systagenix Wound Management have started to give the South Shore a reputation as a leader in regenerative medicine, Windham-Bannister said. Systagenix, a British manufacturer of high-tech bandages, opened its American headquarters in 2009 at the Crown Colony office park in Quincy.

“They chose to be in Quincy (because) it was cost-effective, but close to all the things they need,” Windham-Bannister said.

One factor that discourages companies from locating on the South Shore is the potential for tough commutes, however.

“If you’re a company looking to hire good employees, you want to be able to attract people from both the north and south (of Boston), so you go due west,” said Curtis Cole, a senior vice president for commercial real estate broker CB Richard Ellis.

Cole said biotech companies prefer to be near universities to tap their talent pool for full- and part-time employees. In Quincy, partnerships with local hospitals could be a selling point, Cole said.

Steve Adams may be reached at sadams@ledger.com.

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